Highest king tides of 2022 expected Friday and Saturday, photos sought for Coastal Commission project

There might never be a white Christmas in coastal Orange County, but does white sea foam count?

King tides will occur up and down California’s coastline this weekend and are expected to reach heights of 7 feet between 8 and 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, according to meteorologists at the National Weather Service’s San Diego station.

The California Coastal Commission noted this weekend’s tides will be the highest of the year and asks members of the public to help safely document them by photographing the experience as part of its California King Tides Project.

“King tides” is a nonscientific designation used to refer to exceptionally high tides. They occur when there is gravitational alignment between the sun, moon and Earth. Coastal Commission officials said the king tides allow researchers to see what higher sea levels — caused by human-induced sea level rise — will be like in the near future.

The project was first launched in the winter of 2010.

Photos taken for the California King Tides Project are to be used to document current flood risks, see impacts of future sea level rise, validate both on the ground and in climate change models and serve as a living record in the future.

Meteorologist Mark Moede said this weekend’s king tides might result in some minor flooding in places like Newport Beach, Sunset Beach and the Balboa Peninsula.

Newport Beach spokesman John Pope said that as much as the area could use rainfall, “We are fortunate that no rain is forecasted this weekend in conjunction with the king tides. The worst flooding problems on the Peninsula and Balboa Island have occurred when extremely high tides happened along with high rainfalls.”

Pope said city staff will be stationed throughout the peninsula and the island in response to the high tides, in anticipation that some water will need to be pumped out of the streets. No major flooding is expected, he said.

“The other aspect of king tides is that what goes up must come down,” added Moede. “We have high tides in the morning, but that will go to very low tides in the afternoon. For those that want to go and explore areas that are usually not exposed, that would be the time to go to the beach to do some tide pool exploration.”

Moede said tides would fall to about -1.8 feet between 3 and 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. King tides will also return Jan. 21 and 22.

Readers can submit photos and learn more specifics about the project at coastal.ca.gov/kingtides.

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